Follow the Stomach

I love being a missionary. This was one of those weeks that made me feel like I could do this for the rest of forever.

Heavenly Father knows so well how imperfect we are. He knows there will be times when we know we didn't even do our best. And yet He will still magnify the efforts we do put forth to bless us and those around us, according to our hearts and our desires and our love for Him and others.

I got to go on exchanges with Sister Hilaire this week! Which was wonderful :) I missed my daughter, but she's an awesome missionary, I'm super proud of her. I don't remember if I said that she got transferred up to the Quebec ward? So we're in the same district now and I'm her STL (Sister Training Leader) so yeah, we got to go on exchanges :)

Quick miracle, we were going for a lesson with Mariana and while we were walking up the stairs in her apartment building Sister Martin was like "I smell Haitian food" and she was right, it smelled super good. I pointed to the door from which the smell wafted as we passed it. Apartment number 5. Mariana wasn't there so we left, went back down the stairs, and had gotten halfway down the street before my beautiful and intelligent companion suggested that we go back and try to contact that Haitian family. In her words "Maybe they'll feed us!" Well, I couldn't argue with that, so we turned right around, we re-entered the apartment building now saturated with the smell of salmon and Haitian rice, and knocked on apartment number 5. The smell was almost overpowering as the door opened and the mother of the large Haitian family recognized our tags immediately and told us that they had studied with the missionaries for years and weren't actually completely sure why they had stopped. Long story slightly less long, she gave us their number and said we call to see when they're available for us to come back. Disclaimer, they didn't feed us dinner. But we did go directly to the nearest Chocolat Favoris right after, so not all was lost. And that's my "Follow the Stomach" moment for this week.

Also there are people we're actually working with, we had another lesson in Portuguese this week and my comprehension has gone way up with the new knowledge of Spanish, we made a bunch of new friends, prayers are real and God answers them.

I love you all very much!
Souvenez-vous qui vous êtes ♥

queridos familia y amigos

Okay. A lot to say. Not a lot of time.

Sister Martin is awesome! I don't remember if I mentioned last week, but she and I lived together for a transfer at the beginning of her mission! I'm so grateful I don't have to get to know someone brand new, these last few days have just been so fun as a companionship. I am very grateful for her as my companion :) 

The Spanish learning is going wonderfully! I no longer have the option of leaning on Sister Calderon, Sister Martin and I are at about the same spot Spanish wise and we are learning so much together every day! We receive much divine help. I'm not terribly concerned about losing my French, the branch is still in French along with most of our lessons but we've successfully taught two lessons in Spanish and we pray exclusively in Spanish together. It's pretty cool, we know that we wouldn't be picking it up this fast in any other situation. It is so motivating knowing that what we are learning is for specific people whom we love.

I think I've mentioned before my humility/pride study in the Book of Mormon. Well, that's still happening and here's something I learned this week. Pride is choosing not to have all the blessings of the Atonement -- and Atonement which has already been accomplished, and which is infinite. The power and influence of the Atonement in our lives individually is limited only by our own pride.

I love you all!! Souvenez-vous qui vous êtes ♥
Sister Lonas

Mission Leadership Council - September 2016

Transfers, for real this time

It has been a VERY fun week being in a trio with the Quebec Sisters, but I'm excited to finally have my companion on Wednesday, and it is Sister Martin! She and I lived together for a transfer when Sister Beaumont trained her, so I don't have to get to know someone brand new and I already know I like this one :) 

I don't have a lot of time, but everything is going really well!! Mariana hasn't come to church yet but we had a really good lesson yesterday on the Sabbath Day and it was kind of like "Oh, that's a commandment?? Yeah okay, I can do that, then." So we're giving her a church tour on Wednesday and she'll be at church on Sunday YAY! Also we went bowling today for Pday. Canadian bowling is not the same.

I really miss Sister Calderon! I don't really know what else to say about that, it's just very true.
I have to go, the church is true, the book is blue.
I love you! Souvenez-vous qui vous êtes ♥

Transfers???

SO haven't actually gotten transfer calls yet. I blame the zone leaders. But we talked to President this morning and he said I'll be in a trio with the Quebec sisters for like a week, and I think I'll find out today who my new companion will be after that? Not sure.

But it's been a good week!! We kind of redid a first lesson with this guy who has been on vacation for the last three months and he committed to be baptized on October 8th. Claudine is wonderful, she's doing well.

We went on exchanges again this week, it was gooooood. Sister Calderon goes home in like two days. She's remarkably stable. I'm just waiting for when the freak-out happens. It happens every time.

We've had some really good experiences this week and all the ones coming to mind are just too long for me to want to type out right now.

We had zone conference! The training we gave was on teaching simply. It went well! I think. I guess that's not saying much, we planned to say what we thought would make a good training so yeah, WE thought it was good. And then we had testimony meeting and finishing missionaries (just Sister Calderon and Elder Mecham) gave really nice testimonies along with a bunch of other people and then at the end President stood up and said that testimony meeting felt incomplete and asked me to get up and bear my testimony. So I did that. I talked about the way my testimony has grown from the testimony I've always had of eternal families. I kept looking back to see if I'd said the thing President was waiting for. Not sure if it happened. But he seemed satisfied afterwards.

I am so grateful to know that families can be together forever. I KNOW that is true doctrine. I know that as we share true doctrine, the Spirit testifies to the hearts of others' of its truth. I love being a missionary, I am so grateful to be where I am with these people and with Sister Calderon. I am going to miss her so much.

So yeah that's my email for this week,
I love you all!

Sister Lonas

Claudine ♥

I just got my itinerary for when I go home so I'm feeling a little bit weird.
(NOVEMBER 23rd!!!!!!!!)

Things are good though! We had a wonderful week, Maria has a baptismal date for September 24th and another one of our investigators, Claudine, accepted a date this week for September 17th! I've already talked about Mariaso I want to talk about Claudine a little bit. Claudine is amazing, she has gone through so much in the last year and it is amazing to see how perfectly it has prepared her to accept the gospel. We weren't worried when she said before that she didn't feel prepared to accept a baptismal date, because she is praying and reading the Book of Mormon every day. And people who sincerely do those things have the desire to make covenants with Heavenly Father. Which is a desire she now recognizes :) We're really excited for her. She kept asking "But do you think I'll be READY?" which was a funny question. She's ready now. We taught the Word of Wisdom and tithing a couple evenings ago. "So, Claudine, will you obey the commandments of tithing and the Word of Wisdom?" "Well of course I will, I want to be baptized so I'll follow all the commandments of God so that can happen." She makes teaching really fun :)

Ummmm I really love Sister Calderon still. She finishes her mission next week which is cool for her and all because she'll be with her family but I feel a little bit sorry for myself #anotheronebitesthedust. I'll let you all know what happens with transfers! This transfer's missionaries are leaving a week early for school but new missionaries are coming in at the normal time so there's a week of limbo, don't know what I'll be doing. I'm hoping to be a solo sister for a week...probably won't happen.

Funny moment. We pulled up to a dinner appointment and Sister Calderon REALLY had to use the bathroom. We prayed in the car before going in and she prayed that WE would be able to hold it. and I as we were walking up to the house I said "That seems like kind of a 'you' problem, what's up with the 'we'?" And she said "It's a 'me' problem as long as I can hold it, otherwise it becomes a 'we' problem!"
And I just thought that was really funny so I wanted to share it with you all, with her permission.

Soooo yeah, that's my life. We've started doing role plays with members to help them know how to share the gospel which has been way fun.

We went on exchanges with one of our sister teams this week which was awesome! It was a new experience being on the STL side of exchanges. I totally know what I'm doing as a missionary these days, so that's cool. Exchanges were good. Although I don't like people telling me their issues, it's nice knowing how to better serve those I'm asked to serve.

I'm a happy camper :) I love you all, (OH, and we tried to give blood this week. Sister Calderon was successful. They said my veins are just too darn small.)
Souvenez-vous qui vous êtes ♥

Sister Lonas

English, French, Spanish, Portuguese

Things are really good! That said, no idea what to share.

This week I`ve been studying the Restoration and the Plan of Salvation in Spanish and my major impression has been the magnificence of the constancy of the restored gospel. True doctrine is true in any language and regardless of the missionary teaching or the person being taught. People say stuff sometimes like ``Well that`s just not ME.`` Which just is never true. Different people are prepared to receive the gospel at different times, but the truthfulness does not depend on the preparedness of the receiver. If that sentence makes any sense at all. Feel free to disregard things I say that don`t make sense.

We have a new investigator this week who speaks un peu de Francais, but whose first language is Portuguese (miracle, we had a Portuguese Book of Mormon in the apartment that we had noticed the day before and kind of been like, haha, now we`re set for when we start teaching the throngs of Brazilians we see every day) and we found out that we both totally understand Portuguese so that`s made us feel cool. We taught using mostly pictures, and it was really cool when we had her read a few verses from the Book of Mormon and she was just so grateful. Turns out, the human population in general is much more humble than I am.

We got to teach with President Phillips' wife this week! She came out with us and for our first lesson, the woman didn't show up so we went contacting with Sister Phillips and it was awesome. People ask us a lot if we're nuns, and this time they thought that she was our Mother Superior.

Ummmm I'm sure other things happened but I think that's all the typing I've got in me for today. I really love you all!

Souvenez-vous qui vous êtes ♥

Oh yeah, and I can participate sometimes in Spanish lessons. The gift of tongues is real.

Miracles

Monday, August 1, 2016
Okay.  I'm going to try to be more informative this week.

First things first. We teach some people in Spanish and I can totally understand what's going on but cannot add much, and mi Hermana is leaving me in a few short weeks and I don't know if I'll have a Spanish speaking companion after that... SO I asked President for permission to start learning Spanish and got the green light.  Which is pretty funny.  

Man, I never know what to even say, I feel like so much happens every week and it's a little bit discouraging to try and plan on telling y'all everything because that's just not going to happen. You'd think these were things I would have worked through at this point in my mission life. Guess not.

Miracle number one from this week: We found this woman named M___ who was dumpster diving because she just moved from Columbia and she was only able to bring 50 pounds of stuff with her. We helped her bring her treasures back to her apartment and talked to her about our calling and she hugged us a lot and she said we could come back and share a message. But we weren't able to set a specific appointment because she wasn't sure when her sons were going to have work and stuff (sorry if this isn't making any sense, I'm typing fast) ... so we went and passed by once and she wasn't home and then on Saturday (I think) an appointment fell through so we decided to go to M___'s and she was just on her way out of the apartment to go for a walk. We walked with her and she told us that she told her son when she was leaving that she was just going for a walk, but that really she was going to talk with God and that when she saw us, she knew He had answered her prayer.  We made a return appointment for the following day and brought her a Book of Mormon and when we pulled it out she started crying and she said that her birthday had just passed and she had prayed and asked God for a book of scripture to help her strengthen her relationship with Christ. She had only been able to bring a section of the New Testament with her from Columbia and she felt like she needed more.  So that was cool.  God is super nice.  I'm sure glad our appointment fell through on Saturday.

I am very, very grateful for the experiences I have to see God working in the lives of his children. We have a Father in Heaven who loves us very much!

Miracle number two was with a couple from Columbia (that's been a theme this week) (Quebecois people are generally less open to talk about religion than...not Quebecois people).  Long story short, they met a member of our branch when they were visiting Quebec before moving here three months ago.  As in they moved here three months ago, and they were visiting like five months ago.  So they met Frere P___, and he invited them to meet the missionaries and they've been super busy with the moving life BUT we had an amazing lesson with them this week and after teaching the whole Restoration, Y___ (the wife) was like "I agree with everything you've taught." And then we invited them to be baptized and they said yes so we'll see when that happens ... but yeah, good stuff.

Sister Training Leader life is way good times, We had Mission Leadership Council this week and my main impression has been "Cool, I totally know what I'm doing." which is a lot better than the alternative.

I sure love you all, I hope this has been a satisfactory update, next week I'll plan on going back to writing about what I've been studying and thinking about.

Souvenez-vous qui vous êtes ♥ 

Mission Leadership Council July 2016